Thursday, September 26, 2013

To the newlyweds, Mimi and Ronnie Sarti

For those of you who don't know me, my names is Marcos and I am Michelle's "big" brother. I know I don't look much older than the bride, groom, the bridesmaids or groomsmen, but trust me I'm a fairly old man compared to these naive whippersnappers. Just kidding of course....sort of.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for coming to Michelle and Ronnie’s wedding on this joyous day. Please give the newlyweds a big round of applause.

When I first met Ronnie, he reminded me of someone famous I’ve seen in several films. I mean, is it just me or doesn’t he look like a certain celebrity stud whose name rhymes with Colorado Broom? Just look at that stache! It reeks of Will Turner! But it’s ok. I can tolerate his elfish good looks since he plays Call of Duty and Skyrim on a regular basis. That and Michelle can tolerate it since she has watched me play video games since she was a newborn baby.

Seriously though, I couldn’t think of a better person than Ronnie as Michelle’s other half.  I accepted you right off the bat when I first met you. Your cool, calm and collected nature compliments my sister’s vicious, short-tempered, doesn’t know when to shut up attitude. He also makes both her and our parents laugh which is a plus in my book.

Ronnie, I am extremely happy to call you my brother-in-law. Welcome to our crazy family. Just please don't change your mind and take up an acting career. You are fine the way you are.

Michelle. Oh, Michelle.

My baby demon princess of a sister whom I personally named after Michelle Pfieffer. Where do I begin with you?

From the moment I held you in my arms when you were born on April 23, 1992, I knew you were something special. Special in the sense that you were going to be one tough cookie to deal with as you grew up alongside your big bro.

I mean from haphazardly running around all over the place yelling and screaming at our parents because you didn't get your way or kicking, scratching and biting me for no reason only for your personal sick enjoyment, you never ceased to amaze and frustrate us with your rebellious antics from when you were three years old up until.....well right now actually.

Despite your rough behavior throughout all the years, however, I have always admired and sometimes was jealous of your positive qualities that I wish I could have exhibited when I was younger.
You were  bold, fearless and were never afraid to speak your mind. You are very stubborn and full of pride, but you always stuck to your guns no matter what and you never changed for anyone but yourself. You still embody all these qualities to this day and that's not a bad thing.

Through both your strengths, weaknesses and experiences throughout your life, you have grown into a fine, young woman. You are kind, caring, loyal and you always stand up not only for own beliefs and morals, but for your friends and family as well. You have inspired me to not only to become a good brother, but a better person than I could have ever imagined. I don't know if I was there for you as much as I should have been as your big brother, but I know you have always have and continue to be there for me when I'm feeling down and out and for that I am eternally grateful.

You've been through tough times up to this point, but you have come out of those tumultuous moments a stronger person than I or anyone else could ever hope to be. I am so proud of you and what you have transformed into. I love you so much and now I am happy to call you my baby demon queen of a sister!
Congrats to both you and Ronnie on this blessed day. All of us who are here today, including Mama, who is watching from up above and smiling down on the two of you, wish you both nothing but everlasting happiness and unforgettable memories in the years to come in this brand new chapter in your lives. Cheers!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Assumptions and Judgement: I don't like it.

I usually don't post stuff like this, but I have to get it out since I don't like bottling things up.

One of my pet peeves: people assuming things about me when they don't even ask me personally. It truly offends me because I feel like they haven't even taken the time to get to know me before making that assumption. I feel like I'm being judged and I really don't need that at this point in my life. You either love me or hate me and that's that.

If you are a friend or an acquaintance of mine who I see on a regular basis and you are on my Facebook or Twitter, please if you have something to say about me, don't be afraid to chat it up. YOU added or accepted me for a reason, right? I put in the effort to socialize with via a call, text, chat room, a post, etc. I expect a response back. If you are too busy to respond, just let me know with a simple "I have to go," I'm busy at the moment," or "I'll talk to you later." It's not that hard, folks.

I can't promise I won't get angry, sad or happy, but there's always going to be pain and suffering for both parties involved. So don't do further damage to someone's character by keeping it to yourself or telling someone else. if you have a problem with me or you find something questionable regarding my being, please let me know. I'm not a mind reader and I'm still learning a lot about myself just like everyone else on this planet.

Then again, maybe I'm the one making the assumptions and I just don't realize it. In any case, this should apply to everyone and their relationships with friends and family. It makes dealing with life's other aspects a whole lot easier when issues like the ones I just mentioned are discussed, dissected and becomes water under the bridge towards building a less stressful and drama-free future.

Oh, and if I'm doing the same thing, I apologize in advance for any pain I might have caused. Please call me on it face-to-face before it blows up out of proportion. I don't like hurting people unintentionally without my knowing.

That's my rant for tonight. Hopefully my next post will be a lot more positive and cheerful than this one.

Friday, January 4, 2013

MGL VERSUS: Weekly SSFIV: AE 2012 Results and preparation for SoCal Regionals

Hello, folks. Last night we had a quite a few people show up at Milpitas Golfland for a decent sized SSFIV: AE 2012 session and tournament.

SSIV: AE 2012 Top 8 (25 entrants)

1. Kelvin "Mak Daddy" Jeon (Makoto)
2. Kimo Pamintuan (Hakan)
3. Haaris Abbasi (Ryu)
4. Marcos "El Cubano Loco" Blanco (Claw)
5. Geoffrey "Uuyupop" Yoon (Guy)
5. Rocky (Cody)
7. Julio Fuentes (Yun)
7. Brian "BJ" Jeon (Cody)

Kelvin has been on fire as of late with his patented Makoto play earning his second straight tournament victory. Kimo tore through the brackets and had a reset in grand finals against Kelvin which made for a hype finale; earning him a much deserved second place finish. Both players have shown with hard work, determination and showing very little emotion that they have what it takes to make it to the top.

I ended up getting fourth place as you can see from the above results which is ok. I ended up losing Kelvin in   a close set (2-1) and got destroyed by Haaris' old-school Ryu gameplay (2-0). Haaris did a weird ambiguous setup on me which made me block the right way and blew up my crouch tech with an EX Tatsu after catching my bad jump-in when I had the lead with j.mp>U1. It got into my head which made me not want to crouch tech in the subsequent rounds and he blew me up with throws which garnered him a 2-0 victory over me. I've beaten him many times in the past, but this was his first time beating me convincingly as well as against Geoffrey's Guy.

Needles to say, I was not pleased.

Now, Socal Regionals in Irvine, CA is coming up two weeks from today. I wanted to attend the past three, but couldn't because of work and lack of funds at the time. Not the case this year thankfully. I'll be attending SoCal Regionals with Khiry "Kurokiba" Crawford, my bud Cisco Resendes and possibly some other people who will room with us.

I've been trying to get in as much practice as I can for this event with the best players here in Norcal. I feel like I have something to prove when I participate in this event since I consider SoCal to have the best players when it comes to fighting games. My goal is to at least make top 32 or top 16 and work from there. I have been trying to get as many sessions and spend time in training mode as much as possible all while working full time at the same time. It's difficult, but hopefully I should do well once SCR rolls around.

And not just me. I want everyone from NorCal who is going to this event to step their game up and do well at this event. We've always had a huge rivalry with SoCal and they are usually the better players. With that being said, I have that we have the stronger player base as of late when it come to both AE 2012 and UMVC3. Let's go and show SoCal we are not free!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

My SSFIV: AE 2012 Tier List and my personal worst Claw match-ups

Hello, everyone. Here's my AE 2012 tier list. Thanks to Nacer for the inspiration to write a short post about this.

S: Cammy, Adon, Fei Long
A: Akuma, Ryu, Seth, C. Viper, Yun, Sakura
B: Rufus, Zangief, Makoto, Ibuki, Claw, Dictator, Boxer, Sagat, Ken, Honda, Cody, Abel
C: Gen, Guy, Yang, Rose, Gouken, Dhalsim, Blanka, Guile, Oni, E. Ryu, Chun-Li, El Fuerte, Juri
D: Dee Jay, Dudley, Hakan, T. Hawk, Dan

Personally, I feel my worst match-ups are definitely Cammy, Gen, Akuma and Honda. I also feel like sometimes a really good Guile or Dictator player beats Claw a lot as well, although I think they are mostly even compared to the top four I just mentioned.

I have seem to hit a wall against Cammy and Gen with Claw so I might start counter-picking with Dictator. He was my secondary in Vanilla SFIV and lately I have been playing him in training mode, in casuals and at a couple of the local tournaments as of late. My confidence in playing Dic is getting better by the day so hopefully I can bust him out more often if my Claw isn't doing so well on certain dasy or in certain character or player match-ups I have trouble with.

I'll still be mostly playing with Claw since I'm the most comfortable with him in almost every match-up. There is still room for improvement with my Claw play as well.